SINGAPORE: The Asian Football Confederation gave itself a proud pat on the back on Tuesday after declaring that January’s Asian Cup in Australia was free of match-fixing.
“It is extremely encouraging to see that the detailed integrity planning and collaboration for our premier tournament, the AFC Asian Cup, was a success,” AFC general-secretary Alex Soosay said in a statement.
“This would not have been possible without the support and focused efforts of each stakeholder and in particular Australian law enforcement and Sportradar, who worked hand-in-hand with AFC’s Integrity Unit throughout the tournament.
“The effective implementation of this action plan could be a blueprint for other Asian sporting events and sports governing bodies,” the Malaysian added.
A large bulk of the 47 members in the AFC have been hit with match-fixing scandals in recent years, with fixers targeting low-paid players in various leagues such as Australia, Lebanon, South Korea, China, Vietnam and Singapore.
The AFC has employed Swiss-based Sportradar, a supplier of sports and betting-related data services, to help tackle the problem, which has hit the sport’s credibility in the region, with seemingly solid results.
The AFC has encouraged their members to do the same, but not all have signed up with the Malaysian Football Association, another to be hit by match-fixing issues, querying the cost.

China’s domestic season kicks off this week with hopes of a resurgence for the beautiful game after former England boss Sven- Goran Eriksson and rookie coach Fabio Cannavaro put the league among the world’s biggest spenders.

Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs spent €122.2 million (HK$1.06 billion) during the recently closed winter transfer window, almost double last year’s figure, second only to the English Premier League (€186.8 million) and ahead of Italy’s Serie A, according to statistics from German website transfermarkt.
Socceroo Tim Cahill, once of Premier League club Everton, is the star name among the 47 imports – including many Brazilians – who will double the number of overseas players in the competition when it starts on Saturday.
An invigorated national team who reached the quarter-finals of January’s Asian Cup and top-level political support are also giving fans hope that the game has bounced back after years of turmoil.
Chinese President Xi Jinping – who state media describe as an “avid” fan – backed a “football reform plan” last week.Read the rest of this entry »

Head coach Simon McMenemy cut a frustrated figure after last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Stallion. He was particularly disappointed at what he felt was a lack of commitment from his players, and he made his feelings known with an extra training session the day after.

“There are a couple of heavy legs out there due to some extra running on the Sunday after the Saturday game. I wasn’t particularly happy so I canceled their day off and I got them in the next day and they ran hard for an hour, just to remind themselves the price of not quite running through the 90 minutes,” said McMenemy.

Despite the extra day of training, the Scot is confident it will not negatively affect how the Sparks perform against Philippine Army on Saturday.

“There’ll be plenty of time for recovery ahead of Saturday’s game and I think they’re keen to put that behind them and get back to where we were.”

Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, has insisted that his country did not bribe Fifa in order to host the 2022 World Cup.

Friday 27th February 2015
Fifa awarded the rich Gulf state nation the honour of hosting the biggest football tournament in the world ahead of Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United States.
Sheikh Al Thani has previously skirted around the topic in the past, and Qatar has continuously denied accusations of corruption in relation to their 2022 World Cup bid, but speaking to students at Georgetown University in Washington he addressed the issue.
“Those allegations, I’d just said, there is a Fifa and they had people investigating and everything they investigated with everybody, all officials in Qatar, and they found out that there is nothing about (that),” he said.
“This World Cup is for all the Arabs and that is why we were successful,” he added.
“I know that you guys here were very upset that Qatar, a small country, can beat this great country but I think you should believe that you know you can lose sometimes.”Read the rest of this entry »